Week 52: Looking Ahead (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

This week's theme is "Looking Ahead." Who do you want to find more about in 2023? Now would be a good time to write up what you know (or what you think you know!) and consider what your next steps are. (Of course, feel free to interpret the theme in other ways!) Click here to check out all the themes for 2022

Even though this week’s theme is “Looking Ahead”, first I want to review 2022. I managed to participate in 27 of the 52 weeks of 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Even though I didn’t participate every week, I am very proud of what I have accomplished. I even had many of my blog posts promoted in Amy Johnson’s Crow’s weekly email notifications. I must admit, it never got any less excited to see that my post was highlighted. Thank you, Amy!

Now, “Looking Ahead”, I always like to make goals for myself. Some people might call them resolutions, but these are more like goals for me. 

Goal one: participate in more weekly theme’s this year than last year. Thus, more can mean 28 or more weeks. I just need to make sure to set time aside for this goal. I can easily achieve this goal, by bringing out my laptop and working on this in the evenings, when I like to unwind in front of the television. Currently, I was doing this on Monday mornings, in my home office but sometimes, life and other commitments get in the way. So, if I don’t do it Monday morning, there really isn’t anything preventing me (besides myself) on doing it on Monday evenings.

Goal two: just to work on genealogy more. After getting Covid in late May, early June, my research motivation went way down. But then again, the weather got nice and I was doing more outdoor activities. However, I could just schedule some weekly time for genealogy and then stick to that schedule. So, my goal is to look at my schedule and figure out when this might be the easiest for me to achieve.

Goal three: this goal is an ongoing goal. I am trying to figure out the lineage of my Hiltz/Hilts branch. This is my maternal grandmother’s maiden name. This family has been in the America’s since about 1710. Some branches moved to Canada during the Revolutionary war and some remained in New York and surround areas. I have lots of DNA matches with this branch of the family. I have found this branch to be more like spider web, with various branches marrying back into itself. Probably why I have so many DNA matches. Anyway, my goal is to continue researching this branch, and expanding the lines, and placing my DNA matches into my tree.

Goal four: To clean up my old paper files. Again, this is an ongoing project that I just don’t ever seem to get around to. I am going through my binders and inherited binders from my aunt. I am scanning items and then shredding those that are not original, such as vital records, funeral cards, etc.…  I switched from binders to folder filing many years ago. One rule I made for myself, nothing goes into the folder unless it has been scanned, inputted and sourced. Thus, I am verifying that I have the information in my genealogy software program. I need to look at this goal in a different light, instead of dread because going through the binders are kind of boring at times. This process really has many benefits, finding overlooked clues, cleaning up my genealogy software database and just giving branches I haven’t looked at a new set of eyes. However, I get side tracked doing new research as I go through these binders, and I need to make a task list of things I can look at after I am done with the cleanup. It can be after I have done one hour of clean up or one day of clean up. 

Looking at these goals, they are very achievable.  Are they totally measurable, well Goal one is definitely, goal two needs to be refined to say how much more time do I want to work on genealogy and it would tie into goal three and four. If I say I want to do two full days of genealogy a week with working on goal three one day and goal four another day, my goals because more measurable. Plus, this still gives me lots of free time for other genealogy research and of course all the non-genealogy stuff I do in my life. Yes, there is more to life then genealogy, just don’t tell anyone I said that.  

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!